"At this point [in the election cycle] when somebody suggests that a clown is running for anything, I think people have a tendency to say, 'yeah, I can get behind that,' cause they all seem like clowns at this point," King said.

King also spoke about his new book, a collection of essays detailing his time at the University of Maine. This book is a collaboration with some of his former UMaine classmates.

King said some of his memories of those days aren't all positive.

"I don’t think of those times very often because it was a formative period of my life — but not a time that you want to go back to," King said. "It was also traumatic there were a lot of protests, a lot of personal relationships."

"It sort of came to me out of left field, so I said, 'I don’t know if I really want to go back,' but Jim was very persuasive, so the book finally happened and it turned out really well. I’m really glad that he pushed."

King will hold a "Hearts in Suspension" reading Monday at The Collins Center at the University of Maine in Orono.